Canada: Polar bears forced to fast and lose one kilogram per day in midsummer (photos)

In Canada’s Hudson Bay, in the middle of summer, The last bits of ice are like scraps of paper on the blue water. A bear basking in the sun in front of the waves, away from the sea ice and its prey, seals.

“They may find a carcass of a beluga whale or a stray seal, but they fast most of the time and lose about two pounds a day.”

Its white fur is of little use to disguise itself. Everywhere, the shoreline is nearly flat, with rocks, tall grasses, purple-flowered willows, and flimsy trees struggling against the wind to grow.

The bears of the region live in a critical period.

Every year, from the end of June, when the snow disappears, They have to live on this beach and fast. Long fasting and increasingly dangerous for them.

Geoff York, a biologist with Polar Bear International (PBI), explains that once on land, “bears often have very few options for food.”

Near the impressive male lying in the sun, there are the remains of thistles. There is nothing in sight that will quell the hunger of this 3.5-meter-long and nearly 600-kilogram animal.

“In some places you can find a carcass of a beluga whale or a reckless seal near the shore, but most of the time they fast and lose about one kilogram per day,” says the scientist.

Global warming in the Arctic is three times faster than in other parts of the worldOr even four times, according to the latest studies.

Little by little, the ice pack, that is, the floating ice sheets that make up the habitat of the polar bear, disappear

According to a report published in Nature Climate Change in 2020, this could nearly drive the animal extinct: From 1,200 polar bears in the 1980s in western Hudson Bay, it has gone to about 800 today.

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